Journal Fishstery's 50 Gallon Jungle Style Rescape

[Fishstery]

I apologize for my hiatus-- life has kept me busy as well as my other hobby projects. Some of you may have read my other journal on my Nature/Garden style hybrid, where I decided to switch pace from fast growing stems and rescape the tank to a traditional Nature style scape, which better suits my busy schedule.

I wanted to wait to post my initial pictures until I had gotten most of the plants in and arranged. Some plants were reused from the old scape and new ones were added. I'm still waiting on some Trident Fern, Blyxa, and Crypts to arrive, but those will be the final additions and then the scape will just be set to maintain and mature mode.

The hardware is still all the same, but for the purpose of starting a new thread I will reiterate the list of hardware.

Tank and Hardware:
Landen 100p
39" X 17.71" X 17.71" ~50 gal
Two Week Aqua T90 Pros
Oase Biosmart Thermo 600
GLA Dual Stage Regulator with inline diffuser
Fresh UNS controsoil, Black Fine
Beach Driftwood and Ancient Stone

Flora:
Eleochari Ascicularis'mini'
Staurogyne Repens
Elatine Triandra 'Fluorescence'
Bucephalanda sp 'Brownie Ghost 2011', 'King Devil', 'Neo 2015'
Anubias sp 'Nana Jade', 'Chili', 'Stardust Mini Coin'
Rhaphiadora Beccarii
Hygrophila Pinnatifida UK Variant
Java Fern 'Needle Leaf', 'Needle Leaf Mini', 'Orange Narrow'
Ranunculus Inundatus
Blyxa sp Japonica
Cryptocoryne Spiralis Tiger 'ADA Variant'
Nymphoides 'Taiwan'
Nymphaea Micrantha
Nymphaea 'Zenkeri'
Homonoia Riparia

Fauna:
15 Cenepa Red Pencilfish
15 Platinum Rummy Nose Tetras
2 Wild Type Honey Gourami
~25 Blood Orange Neocaridina

I'm basically running the same photoperiod as before, but added in a half hour ramp up and ramp down, so 1 hour ramp and 6 hours on, 45% Intensity on a custom color setting. Co2 injection rate was adjusted to account for slower growing plants, but still set to come on 2 hours before lights on. I'm dosing 5mL of APT 3 daily and 8mL of Seachem Advance to try and get my hairgrass carpet recovered.

I was a but worried about a mini cycle since I had to replace all of my substrate, thankfully due to the lower ammonia release of Controsoil, the bacteria were able to handle it with no issues. The plants don't have any algae, but since startup with the last scape, I'm still dealing with a lot of GDA and hair algae buildup on the glass by the end of the week. I'm assuming it's due to the spread of the pendant lighting, so I'm not sure what to do about that other than to just wait until after WC day to take tank photos

Maintenance has been far more straightforward as the tank works towards balancing. The first few water changes were time consuming as I move plants around and try to solidify an appeasing layout, however I think I have now finalized my planting groups and am happy with things. Now I will wait for some Trident Fern mats to add behind the driftwood, Blyxa Auberti variant from Joe, and a Cryptocoryne Albida 'Costata to fill out the background, and then let things fill out.

Now for the fun part! Photos. I won't be taking many until the plants start to recover and fill in, but I did take a few of the more uncommon plants I have in here as I find those to be interesting to document.

Tank shot:
Java Fern 'Orange Narrow', which I've spent an incredibly long time trying to find and was finally able to track down 4 rhizomes, 3 of which are in here on nutripads and one in my farm tank as a backup. Some leaves are already getting some nice orange coloring on the tips, I'm very excited about this one and can't wait to see what it will do.

One of my Brownie Ghost 2011 clumps I've been farming, which I decided to use as a midground plant for some contrast:

Nymphaea Zenkeri, super common but showing such pretty colors under these lights that I couldn't resist:

Homonia Riparia, stuffed into the crevices of the driftwood. Waiting for it to gain some red and orange tones, but won't happen until my aquasoil finishes leeching, as this plant only develops very vibrant red coloring when under nitrate limitation:

Nymphaea Micrantha, a lily that I have not yet kept before but am really enjoying. The multicoloring speckles on the leaves are really beautiful and tie all or the other colors of the tank together on one leaf:


Let me know what you all think! I'd especially love to hear from those who were following the other scape.

 

[Kwyet]

What is different about the ADA variant of Crypt spiralis?

 

[Fishstery]

What is different about the ADA variant of Crypt spiralis?

I believe it was coined in the hobby due to the very prevalent green stripe down the center of the leaves, which most people find very attractive and was a prominent feature of plants propagated from ADA's tissue culture back when this plant started to gain momentum in the mainstream farms. I'm not sure whether or not there was something genetically different from the mother plants that ADA had used to seed their TCs and the origin behind it. I suppose not all Tiger Spiralis have such a prominent green stem line, so hobbyist unofficially coined those with the green stripe as the "ADA Variant". If searching the internet for information on this species on other hobbyist forums or groups, you'll end up seeing people ask "is this the ADA variant?" Which is to say "does this have the green stripe down the middle?".

I believe all young leaves of Tiger Spiralis have the contrasting green line, but what sets the "ADA variant" apart from others is that this genetic line maintains that green line even in mature leaves, although perhaps someone with more information on the background of this plants history in the hobby can correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[MrJG]

I was enjoying the old layout! Miss that big chonk of wood stump!

I get it though, ease of maintenance will only make it more enjoyable to just be and watch the tank develop.

Love the new layout though and how it moves to around 2/3 of the tank. Is that a nice little cave? That’s going to look cool once plants grow in there at the front. Can’t wait to see it grow in.

Edit: oh yeah next time let us see the top of the wood outside the tank! Any plans for that or leaving it to “nature”?

 

[Fishstery]

I was enjoying the old layout! Miss that big chonk of wood stump!

I get it though, ease of maintenance will only make it more enjoyable to just be and watch the tank develop.

Love the new layout though and how it moves to around 2/3 of the tank. Is that a nice little cave? That’s going to look cool once plants grow in there at the front. Can’t wait to see it grow in.

Edit: oh yeah next time let us see the top of the wood outside the tank! Any plans for that or leaving it to “nature”?

Yeah I was really conflicted about rescaping as the old one started to grow on me once it hit stability! Though the difficulty trying to balance the ever changing needs of such a demanding plant selection was just too tiring to balance between a full time job and budding toddler. The trim sessions alone were sucking the enjoyment out of it.

Yes, you spotted the cave! My gouramis have claimed it as their little fortress. The stump in the last scape also had some holes that ran all the way through the trunk like little passageways, and the gourami were constantly popping up out of them when I'd be working in the tank I decided to recreate another hidey hole in this one for them. Currently I just have some hairgrass and elatine triandra planted in there, though I'm not sure how well either will grow in the shade. I'm considering finding a different low growing plant that will tolerate such shade better. A bed of moss would also be pretty cool, but in a high tech scape moss can be a bit hard to control to one area.

As for any emersed growth, the homona riparia will eventually grow out of the tank, I have two branches of it already above the water surface, I'll take some top down shots later tonight. I'm also going to let the Taiwan lily grow surface pads but will keep the Zenkeri and Micrantha mowed down to keep them compact.